Local SEO for Wealth Managers: How to Get Found by Prospective Clients in Your Area

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Financial advisors who want to attract a client base in their community share many of the same search engine optimization (SEO) challenges big national firms do. They also have some unique ones – like competing against household names while working within compliance constraints and building trust with prospects who may not convert for months. This guide explains what you must know about local SEO so you can be found online by prospective investors in your area while maintaining the professional standards your industry demands.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of improving online search results for regional businesses, including financial firms, that have brick-and-mortar locations. Online-only financial firms, even if based in a specific area, don’t qualify. By adhering to general SEO best practices, along with those for local SEO, regional financial businesses can increase organic search traffic from prospective investors in their community.

Search engines, primarily Google, the leader in local search, rely on clues such as information on a Google Business Profile (GBP), financial content with a regional twist, social media pages, links, ratings and reviews, and other factors to provide the most relevant local search results to people seeking information about financial service businesses in their area.

When wealth managers get local SEO right, they can transform their top positions on search engine results pages (SERPs) into clicks that could result in more assets under management.

Here are steps you can take to improve your local Google results.

Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is a critical component of local search success. It provides much of the information Google needs to understand local financial firms, the solutions and services they offer, whether clients recommend them, and what makes them stand apart from other local competitors.

Ensure you’re doing everything possible to improve your firm’s visibility to Google by:

  • Creating and verifying your Google Business Profile
  • Ensuring all information in the profile is complete and current
  • Posting regularly about your firm in GBP (think market updates with local relevance – like how rising property taxes in your county affect retirement planning)
  • Encouraging your best clients to provide ratings and reviews on the platform. (Work with compliance to ensure you do this in a way that doesn’t get you into trouble.)
  • Responding quickly, honestly, and authentically to reviews, even negative ones. It signals to Google that you care about your clients. (Include compliance in this, as well.)

If Google views your firm as worth recommending to prospective clients in your area, it could be rewarded with a top position in local SERPs.

Ensure your Business Name, Address, and Phone Number are Consistent

Always ensure your firm name and contact information are presented identically online, whether in your Google Business Profile, website, or social sites. Google checks these things as it crawls the web, and any differences could cause confusion and harm your position in search results or Google Maps. Search engines could also collect and post incorrect information, such as an address or phone number, that could lead to a bad experience for prospective clients, which is particularly problematic when someone’s looking for help with their life savings.

Align Online Aggregators

For companies in the United States, three aggregators provide much of the map-related data for Apple, Yelp, Bing, Google, TripAdvisor, and more:

Your business information must be consistent across all the aggregators. Discrepancies, such as misspellings, inconsistent abbreviations, a missing office or suite number, or an incorrect phone number, can cause issues. If Google and other search providers can’t determine which information about your firm is correct, they may not show it in search results.

Also, remove any duplicate listings you find in online directories. They can also be a source of confusion for search engines.

Engage on Social Media

Google views helpful, original, and authoritative (not promotional) content shared on social media — and engaged with by people — as critical for recommending financial firms. (Extra points if your investing insights have a local angle, for instance, how the new state tax laws affect retirement planning for Texas residents, or why California’s housing market impacts portfolio allocation strategies.)

High social engagement with your content and posts signals that you’re a vital part of your community because you share beneficial information with people in your area who find value in it. 

Select social media channels that make sense for your client base. If you’re targeting business owners and executives, you’ll likely find them on LinkedIn discussing market trends. Many pre-retirees and retirees are still committed to Facebook, sharing articles about market volatility and seeking reassurance. Younger investors often prefer videos posted to YouTube, especially educational content about basics like 401(k) rollovers or first-time home buying strategies.

Don’t try to take on too many social media platforms. It could spread you and your team too thin. After all, serving your clients should be your primary objective.

Conduct a Local SEO Audit

Conducting a basic audit regularly can help identify search-related issues you may not be aware of.

A local SEO audit could include the following:

  • On-page SEO check to ensure you’re doing everything possible to improve your rankings.
  • Google Business Profile review, checking whether your information is current and correct.
  • Google Search Console checks to ensure your site is crawlable and doesn’t have issues that could negatively impact indexing.
  • Citation review to check whether all your business profile information is correct and consistent across all directories.
  • Competitor site review to determine if they’re doing anything better on their websites than you are. Look out for things that could hinder your SERP position and help theirs. Pay attention to how other local advisors position themselves against national firms.
  • Regular website check of all critical metrics to ensure your site performance is improving and nothing is diminishing.

Enhance Your Site’s Internal Links

Increasing and improving your internal website links could help boost your local Google search results.

That’s because internal links:

  • Help Google crawl your site, making it easier for bots to figure out what your website and financial service business are about
  • Support website navigation, making it easier to get around, and send positive signals to Google
  • Assist with information architecture and website hierarchy, making it easier for people and bots to understand what your pages and content are about
  • Distribute page authority and ranking power among a broader array of pages, providing you with greater SEO firepower.

Add links to pieces of content where they make sense and enhance the visitor experience. For instance, a broad-based article about retirement could link to more detailed pieces about different aspects of it (for example, IRA rollovers for local teachers’ pensions, Required Minimum Distribution strategies, and investing approaches for different risk tolerances) that are covered briefly in it. Don’t add unnecessary or excessive ones because search engines may think you’re trying to scam the algorithm.

Optimize Your Content

Of course, when you create a new piece of content, you need to follow the basics of SEO, like incorporating your keywords in the URL, title, header, meta description, and body. Structure the content with appropriate headers and subheads so bots can scan it and search engines can understand it.

However, if your business is located in Boston, writing about Massachusetts 529 plan benefits compared to other states, or how rising tuition costs at local universities like Harvard and MIT affect savings strategies, could make the piece more likely to be found in Boston-metro searches. Consider searches like “college planning advisor near me” or “529 plan Massachusetts.”

Add Individual Location Pages to Your Site

If you have multiple business locations, create a unique page for each. They should provide visitors with the location name, address, phone number, hours, office description, parking and transit options, unique services and offers, client testimonials, and more. Add a Google map to each location page. Avoid duplicating content across them. Find at least 50 percent unique things to say about each  – perhaps highlighting different specialties based on the local client base (tech executives in one location, healthcare professionals in another).

Ensure Your Website is Mobile First

Most searches are conducted on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, which is why Google places more weight on the mobile website experience. This is especially important for financial advisors since prospects often research while commuting or during breaks, looking up things like “financial advisor near me” or “retirement planning help.” Virtually every prominent national financial brand has been mobile-first for a while now. Local wealth and asset managers who are currently not in the game must play catch-up. If your site isn’t mobile-optimized, make doing so a top priority.

Earn High-Quality, Relevant Inbound Links

Inbound links are great opportunities to boost your local SEO. Every quality link pointing toward your website tells Google you’re a legit operation. Links from respected sites can raise your domain authority. Here are a few ways to get inbound links:

  • Through sponsorships and partnerships
  • Building relationships with local reporters and bloggers (especially those covering business and finance beats)
  • Guest blogging on financial planning topics for local business journals
  • Working with local educational institutions, perhaps offering financial literacy seminars at community colleges.

Start with your network, including the local chamber of commerce, clients, educators, and other professionals. CPAs and estate planning attorneys often refer clients and may link to educational content you create. They can be solid sources of inbound links or may know of some. Earning inbound links takes effort, but it will pay off significantly.

Get Active in Your Community

When you participate in local community events and activities, your firm will likely get mentioned positively online. Partnering with nonprofits, participating in volunteer days, sponsoring events, backing teams, and offering financial literacy education could get your financial services brand noticed online and earn beneficial inbound links. Consider hosting workshops about retirement planning at local libraries or partnering with HR departments at major local employers to provide 401(k) education sessions. These things are registered by search engines and will help build credibility for your organization and improve search results. Plus, they are a great way to burnish your brand reputation. 

Local SEO for Financial Firms: The Bottom Line

Optimizing your site for local search might be time-consuming, especially when juggling client meetings, compliance requirements, and market research. But it will pay off in a broader client base and more assets under management. Plus, it will help prevent competitors in your area from stealing online traffic — and prospective investors — from you.

Don’t try to take on everything at once. Focus on a few of the recommendations in this article at a time and watch your SERPs improve. It will inspire you to take on more.

Don’t Let Competitors Own Your Local Market

While you’re focused on serving clients and building your practice, other advisors in your area are capturing the online searches from your ideal prospects. Each month you wait to optimize your local presence, competitors could bring in the clients you should be attracting. 

Your prospects are already searching. They’re typing “wealth management near me,” “fee-only advisor in [your city],” and “retirement planning help” right now. The question is whether they’ll find you or your competition when they’re ready to make a decision.

Book a complimentary strategy session to discuss your local SEO challenges and opportunities. We’ll assess your current online visibility and explore what a strategic local search approach could look like for your practice. 

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